No NaNo

So, it’s been almost a month since my last blog post, which has almost everything, and absolutely nothing, to do with NaNoWriMo.

Confusing, right? It’ll make sense in a second. I promise.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Last year, I spent the month of November putting as many words to paper as humanly possible and wound up averaging over three thousand words a day. That’s about three to four hours of writing per day!

Now, as I’ve mentioned many times since, the book I wrote during last year’s NaNo was terrible. The bones of something solid were there, but that was it. Bones. There was no soul in the work, because I was too busy vomiting the framework out onto the page. I was (and still am) disappointed in myself, so I resolved to make sure that didn’t happen again.

I started writing Where the Fog Falls in September with a mind to get it right, and as NaNo loomed, I knew the draw to take part would be strong.

Drastic measures were required.

Ultimately, I decided on the nuclear approach. I took a huge step back from all forms of social media and even neglected my blog for the entire month. Instead, I focused on writing. Not for the sake of word count, but for creativity.

I have keep enough of an eye on my daily production to know I’ve been averaging about a thousand words a day. While only a third of what I managed last year, I can say that I’m immensely more content with the overall quality of Where the Fog Falls. It’s not perfect – no first draft ever is – but I think it’s far more solid than previous things I’ve written. And I’m far more content as a writer for knowing that.

The goal is to finish Where the Fog Falls by the end of the year, but it’s not something I’m going to hold myself to. If I don’t make it, I won’t fret. I’ll just keep writing at my own pace. That seems to be my sweet spot. And if that’s what it takes for me to turn out better works of fiction, I’ll keep doing it until I can’t.

More soon!